That’s How Long You Should Wait until Your Next Pregnancy

Women who want several children face the question of how long they should wait until the next pregnancy. Now there are new findings.

How much distance should I keep at least between two pregnancies so that neither I nor my baby are harmed? This question is particularly important for women who start family planning late and then find that they would like to have several children. A new study by the Canadian University of British Columbia provides important information for these women. Head of the study Laura Schummers summarizes the results as follows:

Our study found an increased risk for both the mother and the baby when pregnancies occur in close succession.

Older mothers have an increased risk of serious complications

The study, which examined the outcome of more than 148,544 pregnancies, concluded that the risk for women over 35 years of age to suffer serious complications or even die if they become pregnant again after less than six months: In 0.62 percent of the pregnancies, the mother had serious health problems or even died before, during or shortly after the birth.

With a break of at least 18 months between the birth of the last child and a new pregnancy, the risk dropped to 0.26 percent.

Women under 35 bear the increased risk of miscarriage

For women between the ages of 20 and 34, the risks did not increase for themselves, but the risks for the unborn child did. The probability of premature birth or miscarriage increased slightly (by 0.6 percentage points) for women who had been pregnant for less than six months.

The researchers pointed out that the results were more relevant for older mothers than for younger mothers because women over the age of 35 tend to have several children in quick succession, because they are more under the time pressure of the biological clock than younger women.

The recommendation: Keep an interval of 18 months

The recommendation that can be derived from the study is: There are health reasons for keeping an interval of 18 months between the last birth and a new pregnancy.

What are the reasons?

That is exactly what has remained unclear, unfortunately. The researchers pointed out that poverty, inadequate prenatal care, lack of parental care and smoking were most common among mothers who had less than six months between birth and re-pregnancy. It is quite possible that factors like these also influence the outcome of a pregnancy.

However, in 2005, the World Health Organization (WHO) even recommended that there should be an interval of at least 24 months between two pregnancies.